Musings on Asian macro economic trends and financial markets

Asia morning brief: Wed 4 May

Good morning, the RBA 25bp cut to 1.75% innocuous as it with AUD/USD plunging from 0.7720 to 0.7490 led to AUD/JPY selling from 81.9 to 79.5 that cascaded & brought on $/JPY & NKY lower. Stops fest (with Japan out on holiday) saw lows of 105.55 touch by 4pm (HK/Sin time) when London came in. Unexpectedly poor UK Manufacturing PMI at 49.2 vs expected 51.3 saw GBP/USD lower from 1.4770 to current 1.4545. The lower NKY led to lower S&P500 eminis (that ignored the weaker China Caixin PMI in Asian morning) & led to weaker DAX & Eurostoxx50 when Europoan session started. WTI crude oil reversed lower by 2% to 43.85 accelerated the U.S. & European equities lower with $/CAD jumping from 1.2460 to 1.2710 presently. Sometimes, when a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a tornado somewhere else in chaos theory … it just points to the randomness in markets exarcerbated by bad positioning with the street long AUD, long equities, long oil, long EM, short GBP, short bonds & short vols especially among the fast money crowd and some of the real money too. Sell in May & go away may have well started!